Singer will share life with ‘La Bohème’

I swear that opera is not all about the fat lady with the horns screaming at the top of her lungs in a weird language.

Sometimes there are no horns.

And I’m here to tell you that I didn’t know a darn thing about opera when I started singing it.

Now, that’s not so glamorous, but it’s the truth, with apologies to those who have been studying since the womb. While I was cranking out papers at UCSD, opera sort of hit me by accident (much to my parents’ chagrin), and now I valiantly try to pay my bills with it. Most days I wake up and would rather jump in front of traffic than stop singing (well, those are not the days I have to pack three months into one suitcase, or use up one month’s rent for an audition trip).

The strange and wonderful thing about the next three months is that I get to be “on the road” – at home! I’m going to be singing in “La Bohème” at San Diego Opera, in the role of Musetta (I’m really hoping she’ll rub off on me a bit — she gets more dates than I do). After that, there’s “Nabucco” in February, and then a solo recital at the North Park Theatre in March.

A singer is not normally in one city for this long. My ZIP Code is usually wherever my gig and suitcase are for that month (we Sagittarians love that).

Last month it was 10025: a leaky little sublet in New York City. December is audition season in the city — the time we all pound the snowy pavement and try to convince opera companies to hire us for the next two years. I studied “Bohème” in the meantime, took a bunch of voice lessons, stayed away from anyone who sneezed, and looked eagerly forward to coming home to sing again.

My stamping grounds! I started in the chorus years ago in “Aida” (before I knew what I was getting into), and since they couldn’t get rid of me, the San Diego Opera sort of adopted me, showed me the opera ladder, and I started climbing.

Rehearsals start Tuesday with a sing-through of “Bohème,” and then 2 1/2 weeks of staging and tech rehearsals until opening night Jan. 30. I will admit to a bit of the first-day jitters already. Musetta is the biggest role I’ve had here yet, and I may need someone to pinch me.

So, for the next 10 weeks, I get to tell you a bit about what it’s like to rehearse an opera and try to live a normal life at the same time. The former is sure to happen. The latter sometimes gets overlooked.

And it is my hope that you will find out how wonderful, insane and immensely rewarding it is to be in an opera. Any questions — I’ll happily put on some horns and sing in a weird language to explain.

Priti Gandhi will recount her experiences weekly in Arts. More information: on Gandhi, pritigandhi.com; on the opera, sdopera.com.